of Macrobius, who fays exprefsly, that the worship of Saturn and Serapis had been introduced into Egypt after the conqueft, in imitation of that in ufe among the Greeks of Alexandria.

The abbé is not unaware of the objection which may be made to his opinion, from the appearance of the Scarabæus, or beetle, as an emblem of the Sun, both on the Egyptian obelisks, and on Etrufcan gems; but he treats this as a fingle conformity, which may have arifen from one degree of communication between the two people, far fhort of that which ought to have exifted, for one to have borrowed the arts from the other. Indeed he is not quite fure, that as Pampho, a Greek poet, reprefented Jupiter covered with horfe-dung by way of expreffing the intereft the god takes in the most trifling things; the Scarabæus, who fearch for their food upon horfe-dung, may not be a natural emblem of this divinity, which every nation would chufe to express him by; but as this is a nafty idea, he does not care to dwell long upon it.

Of the feveral materials employed by the antient Artifs.

The first attempts of the art were undoubtedly made with earth. Many of thefe were remaining in the time of Paufanias; in the temple of Bacchus at Athens, there was a work in Terra Cotta, in which Amphitryon was reprefented entertaining Bacchus and the other gods. In the Ceramicus, a portico of the city, fo named from its being adorned with works in clay, there were two remarkable ones; Thefeus throwing Scyron into the fea, and Aurora running away with Cephalus. Many have likewise been found in Herculaneum; these figures were fometimes painted red, particularly that of Jupiter, and it is from thence poffibly that Ceres may have gained her name of Phoinicoptera.

Such were the arts in their infancy; but clay was till used in modelling, after they had reached their perfection. Nor were the artists a little proud of this part of their works, of which they ufed to make public

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exhibitions, in different cities, but particularly at Platea, at the festival celebrated there in honour of Daedalus. These exhibitions had the double advantage of inspiring the young artists with emulation, and of doing full juftice to the talents of the mafter. For as the wine which comes first from the grape is always the richeft part of the vintage; fo in the rude rough sketch of genius, there is often a force and a fire which is weakened by correctness, and the introduction of ornament. As an additional proof of the high eftimation in which fuch works were held, it is recorded that Cæfar fent men to Corinth to fearch in the ruins of that unfortunate city for figures in Terra Cotta, for fo Strabo's expreffion, Toreumata Oftrakina ought to have tranflated, fince it is certain that Toreumata was a general name for all works in Relievo.

Cardinal Albani has a very good collection of works in Terra Cotta: one of the fineft is that which has been taken for the frontifpiece of this chapter. It represents Argo building the veffel of the Argonauts, and Minerva teaching him to faften the fails to the ship; near thefe is a third perfon, who may poffibly be Typhis, the pilot of the fhip.

Ware.

As to the painted vafes of earthen ware, the Earthen ufe of them is very ancient, and feems to have been preferved in religious ceremonies, long after luxury had banished it from common life; as there are feveral of thefe without a bottom, it should feem the ancients ufed them for ornament only, as we do china at prefent.

Wood, of which Polybius tell us the palaces of Wood. the kings of Media was built, was alfo another material in use for statues, prior to marble or stone. There are feveral wooden ftatues made of the fycamore tree, every day found in Egypt, and fome are to be found in moft collections. Pliny tells us, that the fig-tree wood was preferred on account of its foftnefs; and Paufanias, who mentions most of the woods which were in ufe, gives an

account

account of ftatues of that kind remaining in his days in the most respectable places. Of this fort was a Juno, an Apollo and the Mufes, and a Venus and Mercury, at Megalopolis. Such was the ftatue of the Delphic Apollo fent as a prefent by the Cretans, and faid by Pindar to have been made out of the trunk of a fingle tree; but the most famous work of the kind was an Hilaria and Phoebe the wives of Caftor and Pollux, with the horfes of the two brothers, in ebony and ivory, the workmanship of Dipoenus and Scyllis, the fcholars of Daedalus; thefe wooden ftatues continued in fashion even after the nobler material was in ufe. The atheist Diagoras, for want of other wood to drefs his dinner, burnt his Hercules; wooden ftatues were erected in honour of the conquerors at the Olympic games, fo late as the 61ft Olympiad, and Ciceron's brother Quintus had a Lychnuchnum or Candelabre of wood made for him, by a workman of Samos. In the courfe of time, both Etrufcans and Greeks ufed to gild them; two of this fort were in Goris's poffeffion.

As to ivory, we have Homer's authority for Ivory. the use of it being of the highest antiquity.

He mentions beds, fword handles, and fheafs, and a variety of other articles made of it. It was the material of the curule chair of the ancient Lyre, and of feveral pieces of furniture; Seneca had five hun dred tables of cedar wood mounted upon ivory feet. In Greece there were upwards of a hundred ftatues of ivory and gold, larger than life, and of the remotest antiquity. There were others at Malta. At Cyzicum was a temple, in which was a Jupiter of ivory, crowned by an Apollo of marble; Herodes Atticus fo much diftinguished in the reigns of Trajan and the Antonines, placed in the temple of Neptune at Corinth, a chariot and four horfes, the latter all gilt, except the hoofs, which were of ivory. None however, of thefe monuments are remaining, except a few fall figures, and the twelve gods upon a wolf's tooth, in the poffeffion of a gentleman at Rome. The reafon is,

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because Wolves teeth do not calcine by laying in the ground, but thofe of elephants and all other ivory does. There was a Cybele at Tyrinthus in Arcadia, the face of which was made of the teeth of the Hippopo

tamus.

As to the method of making these ftatues composed of different materials, it appears by a curious ftory of one which was left unfinished on account of the troubles at the time of the Peloponefian war; that they began with the head, which they finished, and then proceeded to the other parts.

The first kind of ftone employed in ftatuary, was the fame as that of which the oldest public buildings were likewife made, that is a kind of free ftone, of a whitish colour. There are feveral works of this fort Stone. remaining; ftatues of this kind were commonly placed about fepulchral monuments.

Every artist of every nation was fond of working in marble. The two most common kinds ufed by the Greeks were the Pentelician, and that of the island of Paros, fpecimens of each of which are ftill remaining, and very beautiful. The marble of Carrara, which has been difcovered within a few years, is not inferior to that of Paros, either in fineness of grain, or in its other great and indeed principal excellence, its near refemblance to real flesh.

Marble at first was only used for the heads, Marble. hands, and feet of wooden figures, which from hence were called Acrolithi, a term which neither Salmafius, or Vitruvius, ever rightly underflood. This manner was not abfolutely loft in the time of Phidias, whofe famous Pallas at Platea was of this kind.

-Some of these marble ftatues had real cloathing; afterwards the draperies were painted on them, as is the cafe at Herculaneum on a Diana of the remoteft antiquity. If we may judge by the defcription of it given by the poet, the ftatue of Diana which Virgil's Corydon meant to erect must have been of marble, and have had

red

red bufkins. We have ftatues of various kinds of marbles, but none have yet been found of verd antique.

Bronzes, the next work of art we are to confider, were known in Italy according to Paufanias long before there were any in Greece. The firft Greek ftatuaries we hear of are Rhecus and Theodore of Samos; it was the latter of thefe who engraved the famous gem belonging to Polycrates, the tyrant of Samos, and caft the

great filver cup which held fix hundred measures, Bronze. and had been fent as a prefent to Delphos by Crefus, king of Lydia. About the fame time the Spartans made a vafe which held three hundred measures, and was adorned with the figures of all forts of animals. Prior, however, to this the Samians had employed a tenth part of the profits of their trade to Tarteffus, in making a great bafon, which was fupported by three kneeling figures, nine feet high; and the Athenians had placed the first Bronze quadriga or four horfed chariot in the temple of Pallas on the death of Pififtratus, but Pififtratus died in the 63d Olympiad, whereas Romulus had confecrated to Pallas a quadriga with his own ftatue on it crowned by a victory as early as the 8th. This quadriga and horfes had been taken at Camerinum, and might poffibly be the production of an Etrufcan artist, though the infcription was Greek, as Dionyfius Halicarnaffus tells us, the Roman characters at that time resembled the Greek. Befides this monument of antiquity the fame Dionyfius mentions a Bronze figuré of Horatius Cocles, and another of the famous Clelia, and in the third century Spurius Caffius's eftate being forfeited for treafon was employed in making Bronze images of Ceres.

The little Bronze figures which are commonly met with ferved for various purpofes. The fmalleft were travelling Gods, which were carried in the pocket, and fometimes about the body. The little golden image of the Pythian Apollo, which Sylla wore at his breast, D 2

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